Sunday Music Spotlight – The Rosebuds

Unlike their fellow Raleighite Clay Aiken, The Rosebuds‘ Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp have talent AND good taste. While their music doesn’t strain any indie rock boundaries, they have a knack for creating infectious melodies and hook-filled choruses. They’re not redefining a genre as much as they are perfecting it.

Howard and Crisp formed The Rosebuds in 2001 while in college, though they didn’t get a break until Merge Records signed them in 2003 and released the band’s first full length album The Rosebuds Make Out. (Just another excellent job Merge. Can I come work for you? Seriously.) Since then the band has released two more albums and assorted EPs, singles, etc.

The Rosebuds’ latest album Night of the Furies comes out April 10th. To tide you over until then, here are a couple of tracks from their 2005 release Birds Make Good Neighbors:

Leaves Do Fall

Don’t listen to this song. Trust me. Actually it’s probably a little irresponsible of me even to post it. Why? It will be stuck in your head for at least 4 days now. Sorry. It’s just that catchy. This song shows the overall concept of the album (if there is one…): birds and trees. Listen to the lyrics. They’re everywhere.

Shake Our Tree

Well it’s obviously got trees covered right in the title. And birds are covered in the first line. Whew. Glad we got that out of the way. On top of fitting the theme this song delivers anthemic aural goodness with a singalong on the chorus and lots of handlcaps.

UPDATE:
I tracked down the first single from the new album. It’s a bit of a different direction for the band. Less indie rock and more indie disco. I have a feeling this will grow on me…
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